Good morning Vietnam....

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Hay dudes,

Hows it going? All good hear, on to the next country, you've guessed it Vietnam! Its bloody crazy!

But at least we made it, there was one small moment when we turned up at Vientienne airport at 5am in the morning on the 10th January only to discover that our flight was not in fact booked until the 10th Feb!!! This I hasten to add was not our fault, but the travel agent in Bangkok... yes I suspect we should have checked the tickets and noticed the error, but you live and learn! Fortunately we were able to get a flight for the next day, so after three hours in the airport we had to return to our hotel with our tails between our legs and ask for our room back to their great amusement!

But we are now in Hanoi, we have only been here a few days, but you have to keep your wits about you to avoid being run down by the masses of mopeds everywhere. Not to mention the fact that they have yet to discover traffic lights so you just have to step out and walk into the road and dodge the bikes to get across. Pretty hariy as they are coming from all directions.

One small observation is why are we in England obsessed with people carriers? Out here you only need one moped and you can transport any number of people and possessions wherever you like. It is not unusual to see a family of five on one bike, or 20 or 30 boxes stacked up behind the driver, panes of glass, hundreds of eggs, keyboards, tvs, basically anything and everything. Either they are completely crazy or genius'!

Well, we are off to Sapa tonight for a couple of days then Halong Bay before we start our open bus ticket down south.

We also saw the Water Puppets last night which was really cool.

Here are a few photos to keep you amused from the last of Laos and some of Hanoi so far.

loads of love to you all Rach and Rich xxxxxxxxxxxx

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Photos

This is nothing
Hanoi

Traditional Vietnamese houses
Hanoi

From the sky
The tops of the mountains of Laos and Vietnam

Like a bat out of hell
On way to caves in Vang Vieng

Ten
From the last blog

That Luang
Vientienne

Sunset over Mekong
Vientienne

Comments

[paolo]

Hi guys....caught up on your blogs. Good to hear you had a great festive season. Hope 2007 will be as exciting as the latter part of 2006! Pics looking as lovely as ever. How's the trip in vietnam progressing? try and stop in hoi an if you can....lovely old town, and some of the best food in the country I thought - try the 'White Rose' ...that's a dish and not a restaurant (and you can always pick-up a tailor made wardrobe for for next to nothing..). And if time allows, hitch a ride with the Easy Riders from Dalat to Ho Chi Min - great way to see the country. Anyway....all good here, and moved into our palace (10 days ago !). there's a spare room so please do come and visit when you get back...just give us time to get a bed in there. We accept all major credit cards but no foreign change! Oh, and it has a garden for Rach to experiment with. Enjoy and looking forward to the next blog. ciao, paolo + kate

[sally]

bonjour
Hi guys, been a long time. The blogs looking great as ever. Were they actually shaving that beard right off. Result!!! We have just been skiing for a week in France and had a fab time. Even the snow was pretty good, the vin chaud was excellent, but the children ski very fast not sure how much longer I can keep up with them. Wow, it's going to hard for you guys to return, you look well settled into the travelling life. Hope Rachel feeling better. Love Sal xxx